The Office of Diversity & Inclusion has formed an advisory group to reinvigorate the Wade Fellowship, a decades-long platform at the College for recognizing black alumni achievement and connecting black alumni with students for career mentorship and discussions on campus. Wade Fellows provide a meaningful and important voice in ongoing diversity and inclusion work, the career development needs of Amherst students, and in strengthening the alumni network connection between black alumni and students.

2016-17 Wade Fellow: Anthony (Tony) Jack ’07

Tony Jack, currently a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, focuses his work on what influences undergraduates’ sense of belonging at elite colleges and their acquisition of cultural and social capital. When his fellowship concludes, Jack will fill the role of Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard School of Education and the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study. Jack’s work appears in the Du Bois Review, Sociological Forum, and Sociology of Education. Additionally, the New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, American RadioWorks, National Review, and MPR have features his research on lower-income college students as well as biographical profiles of his experiences of being a first-generation college student.

Jack received his B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Religion (cum laude) from Amherst in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard in 2016. He holds fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation, and is a 2015 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow.

Anthony Jack ’07 Returned to Amherst to Discuss His Research

This year’s Wade Fellow, Anthony Jack ’07, returned to campus to talk about his research on low-income college students. (Amherst login required to watch video.)